What is Drupal?

Drupal is a free and open-source content management system written in PHP. When determining whether Drupal is a GOOD technology to use in general, there are three main aspects we need to consider. Drupal needs to be: Efficient: How does this software use my server's resources? Does it use them wisely or am I going to run into speed issues or concurrency problems early on? Reliable and Robust: Is the code clean, or full of bugs? What is the impact on my site if I have to constantly add patches or get updates for faulty code? Flexible: Will I be able to implement changes without starting over from scratch if what I want/need from my site changes later on?

What Does Drupal Offer?

As an administrator you need things to be as easy as possible so you don't spend all your time bogged down with issues/complicated settings or even having to modify the source code on a regular basis. The administrator's ideal system is: Secure: With known bugs being fixed quickly and regularly and a proven history of success in real world applications. Easy to set up and run: Site creation is relatively simple and it is not necessary for you to become an expert in a myriad of other technologies before being able to use Drupal. Intuitive to work with: Once you've started, it should be easy for you to learn new things even if you're not really a technical person.

How is Drupal Used?

Any enterprise that requires a fair amount of working with content is a likely candidate for Drupal and because it is so easily extended and flexible there aren't any real limitations. (FYI: WhiteHouse.org is a Drupal site and that should give you a good idea of the scope and security Drupal is capable of.) The most common uses at this time are as follows: Community portal, aficionado sites, news publishing, intranet/corporate websites, resource directories, educational sites (organizations with memberships as well as virtual classroom), international websites in particular benefit from Drupal's localization features, social networking sites, art, music and multimedia sites.